Impact of widespread adoption of heat pumps on power system operation

The thesis involves research on power system operation, under high wind penetration, using controllable heat pump loads. The work used experimental measurements from the test rig of an underfloor heating arrangement supplied from an air-source heat pump in the Renewable Energy Laboratory at Queen's University Belfast. LabVIEW based data acquisition was used for experimental assessment of various aspects of the operation of the heat pump as an electrical load. Electric heat profile along with electric demand has been scheduled with generation portfolios for the best utilization of heat pump loads using the WILMAR planning tool for network integration of significant wind power. Three scenarios (peak shifting, following wind and following price) are examined to encourage more wind penetration and to ease system operation and the results are compared with the base case. The results show a significant decrease in the system operational cost, with fewer unit start-ups and less wind curtailment. The use of emergency reserve from heating load can lead to enhancement of system performance, by reducing operating cost, fewer unit start-ups and improving capacity factors of efficient plant technologies. A thermal model of the heating system is also developed and different control strategies are applied to maintain building temperatures while using thermal load for user comfort and demand-side management for supporting power system operation. Building temperature variations are also determined for different control strategies. Then a dynamic simulation model for the heat pump is developed for low-voltage network studies. The developed model is used for high penetrations of heat pump loads in low-voltage grids using the DlgSILENT software package. It was found that the typical distribution network can accommodate a certain percentage of heat pumps, provided that the heat pumps employ soft-starters and the network is not overloaded. Power quality criteria are just satisfied under these circumstances. The work concludes that well-controlled heat pumps have a good potential to support the operation of power systems with highly variable renewable generation, making use of thermal storage, provided the low-voltage networks allow their installation.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo